It’s not as though Spider-Man can’t exist without Venom, though. As Peter Parker has now appeared in a total of eight movies, six of which he has led, and Venom has only appeared briefly in one of those, 2007’s “Spider-Man 3.”

Even then “Spider-Man 3” didn’t really get the best out of the beloved character, as it was widely admonished by critics for having too many villains, and there just wasn’t room for Topher Grace to do justice to the alien symbiotic, who merges with journalist Eddie Brock for his survival.

But fans have long dreamt that Spider-Man and Venom would pair up together on screen again.

So when it was announced that Tom Hardy would be leading the way in “Venom,” comic book fans expected the foundations to be laid for the emergence of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man from the Marvel Cinematic Universe at some point in the future.

If that was to happen then “Venom’s” director Ruben Fleischer would have needed to have been in contact with Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios who has produced all 20 installments to their hugely successful and ever expanding Cinematic Universe.

I recently had the chance to speak to Fleischer about “Venom,” during which time I asked whether or not he had any contact with Kevin Feige or Marvel during the writing, shooting or editing of the film.

“No. Not in any way,” was Fleischer’s response.

However he did leave the door ajar for future collaboration, because when it came to Spider-Man and Venom’s future he insisted, “I hope that at some point they will be able to crossover. But for us the entire process was self-contained.”